Ordination Celebration Part 4, Wyoming

...and still continuing with Sunday's presentation for Mike's ordination celebration of 25 years...

When Mike started feeling his work was done in Alamogordo, he heard from or about other congregations but none seemed like where he was supposed to go. THEN one evening the phone rang. I answered and it was a guy named Bob on the line. He made some comment about making "first contact" and I knew he was going to hit it off with Mike. You see, that "first contact" comment came from Star Trek and Mike was most definitely a Trekkie.

So.... on to Casper.  By that time Sam was the only one living at home. He wasn't thrilled about leaving his friends but he was brave.

We found Prince of Peace to be filled with angels!

Mike had his 50th birthday here. Some of you may remember that he was rather cruel to the ladies in this congregation who turned 50 just a few months before him.

Well, we got even as we inducted him into his own little Red Hat Society. Doesn't he look pretty?

One of the most memorable experiences here at this church so far has been the crazy idea of swapping buildings with another congregation.

What an absurd idea, to pack up our congregation and to move to such a big facility!

It was most definitely a God thing!

This photo was taken at one of the several hayrides we've enjoyed at a parishioner's family farm.

The people of the congregations are what Mike's ministry is all about... the people.  Now you will see that I found it hard to edit photos. I found quite a few of sweet people here and I just thought you all would like to see them as well...

Betty and all of us enjoying a picnic.

.   (I am omitting some of the recent photos of kids as I didn't ask permission to put them here)

And here's Renee, in her natural habitat, serving in the kitchen.

(Here I have omitted a photo of my friend, Renee...at her request.)

Mary and Diane look like they were praying but I don't think they were as I don't think I'd be rude enough to photograph during a prayer.

One of the things you may not know about Mike is that he is a photo-hog. I'm not kidding. I was wondering recently, "How many families have photos of him in their photo albumns for weddings, confirmations and such?"

Do you know how hard it is to take a photo of Susanne? This may not be a great photo but it sure captures her spirit. She is always, always working for this church.

The amazing thing is, she has been the only secretary Mike has worked with here and they've worked together for 10 years! That may not seem so unbelievable to you all but consider this... during his 9 years in Alamogordo, Mike went through 9 secretaries! Thank you, Susanne, for putting up with him as he is obviously quite difficult to work with.

Here you have witnessed Mike developing as a grandfather. It has been fun to see "Pastor Grandpa" in motion here.

Mike has had the joy of baptizing our two granddaughters into this congregation.

We've enjoyed a lot of years of Christmas Caroling here, and felt warmed by the parties that followed.

One thing about Mike, he's always so serious about his work...

a pastor does a LOT of teaching.  Here he is teaching the fine art of office golfing with his shepherd's staff...

This is Mike in his favorite fabric... denim.

Mike's parishioners are always so excited to come to church!

I don't know WHAT to say about this photo...

...Or this one...

So... Mike,

For delivering 1500+ sermons, 

for welcoming so many into God's family, 

for braving confirmation students, 

for inspiring preschoolers, 

for caring for the sick, 

lonely and wounded, 

for preparing so many couples for marriage, 

for praying with the dying, 

for comforting the grieving, 

for counseling the hurting, 

for showing God's love to the lonely, 

for sacrificing your days off over and over, 

for being on call around the clock, 

for sharing your strength and insight, 

for your gentle but dependable leadership, 

for sharing your quirky sense of humor 

and for your steady example of letting God guide the way...

We, your flock, say "Thank you".

Ordination Celebration Part 3, Alamogordo

...continuing with the presentation from last Sunday...

Mike's next call was quite a surprise to us as we ended up in Southern New Mexico...Alamogordo. Although we were flown down there for Mike's interview, we were back in Montana when he was offered the position. We couldn't really afford to go back to house hunt so we had a member from that new congregation go with the realtor to pick out a house. We bought the house our new friend and the realtor agreed on. We didn't actually see it until we moved down there!

There Mike perfected the fine art of coffee time with the quilting ladies every Thursday morning. You'd be surprised at how much pastoring occurs during quilting time.

Mike turned 40 when we were in New Mexico. One of my favorite memories is the HUGE turnout for his 40th birthday party. We totally pulled off a big surprise party.

Over the years, Mike has had to balance his family with his work with his need for solitude.

Sometimes, his family time and work time merged. While in Alamogordo we found our son-in-law, Eric.

It meant a lot to Mike that he was able to walk the bride down the aisle then turn around and perform their wedding ceremony.

Mike even had times when he got to preach to his own mother and sisters.

I included this photo just because he looks so handsome, don't you think?

Mike's quiet leadership and thoughtful insight made him loved by many.

This was a sweet day. Mike and our two sons were serving together.

These two ladies were special in their own ways to our whole family. Actually, they were characters!

It is a bit bittersweet to look at this photo as both of them have since died. We know, though, that we will see them again.

New Mexico was a good place for Mike. I love this photo!

...to be continued...

Ordination Celebration Part 2, Harlowton Parish

I'm continuing with the presentation I prepared for Mike's ordination celebration held this past Sunday...

This was taken our first summer in Harlowton .  One of Mike's favorite songs is "Lift High the Cross". I guess that is why he is wearing it on his head!

Mike's first parish was spread out over three counties. Once a year, all the churches came together for an outdoor service. This one took place in the mountains and we all actually camped there. It was fun and Mike got a chance to use his guitar for worship.

I didn't put a photo of all the church buildings in this slide show but this one is Trinity Lutheran in Lennep, MT. Lennep isn't really a town anymore but at that time they did have a sweet little school. This church, like two of the others, did not have indoor plumbing. I just thought you'd like to know that. One unique thing about this congregation was that almost everyone had fantastic voices. Listening to them harmonizing in that little church was pretty close to heaven.

Sam was born during our time at that parish. He became quite the little church baby and was actually baptized at one of their outdoor services when all the congregations came together. Later, Sam sometimes even went calling with Daddy.

Sam and Mike both enjoyed the quiet times in the mountains.

...to be continued

Ordination Celebration Part 1, College and Seminary

Today at church we are celebrating the 25 years Mike has been a pastor. This is the project I've been working on. Right after church the plan is to present this as a slide show while I read the words you see here. I've had fun searching out photographs but I managed to make it into a lot of work. I'd wake up in the night thinking of another photo I needed to find or maybe something else I needed to say about something. Anyway, I'll let you know how it goes!

(photo by Olan Mills)

Thanks for being here to help us celebrate Mike’s 25 years in the ministry. I thought it would be kind of fun to take you on a part of his journey from tractor to pulpit. This first slide is Pastor Mike looking all pastory.  For most of you, that is probably how you think of him. But, believe it or not, his first name really isn’t “pastor”.

This is a picture of him as a teenager. He was a farm boy,  a little brother, a basketball player, a musician…but he was not a pastor. It did not occur to me that he would ever be a pastor.

The first four years of our marriage my husband often looked just like this. His Dad died about a month into our marriage and Mike, at age 20, took over the farming to support not only me, but also his mother.  It seemed to me we would live out our lives on that farm. It was a good place to live. One day, though, Mike confessed to me that he felt he was being called into the ministry. I was shocked to my very core but I am proud to say that my response was, “OK then, let’s go.” Leaving the family farm was probably one of the hardest things Mike has ever done.

Mike knew he had 7 more years of schooling ahead of him from the time he left the farm.  He first had to finish his college degree before he could apply to enter the seminary.  We moved just 75 miles to Havre, MT. where Mike attended college, working toward a history degree.  He was still wrestling with the whole ministry idea. We bought a little house to fix up and planned to settle in for a few years.  About then Mike had some conversations with a pastor in Havre who told him he should do everything he could to avoid the ministry and if he couldn’t fight it anymore, then he should give in.  This pastor also told him about the Lutheran Bible Institute in the Seattle area.  One night Mike was looking at a catalog of the classes at LBI as I fell asleep. When I woke up, he was looking at it again. Within a few weeks we packed what we could into our 2 vehicles, loaded up our 2 year old daughter, and moved out to Issaquah, Washington for Mike to attend LBI. That was a big switch from the Montana farm! We rented an apartment over the phone and went on faith, believing we could find jobs when we got there…which we did.

It was in Issaquah that Mike preached his first sermon. I admit I was pretty nervous for him. Mike was an introvert and I thought it would be hard for him to get used to preaching. Well, he was a natural. He knew he had an important message and he delivered it well. That was the last time I was nervous about Mike preaching.

After two years at LBI Mike had his college degree in Biblical Studies and we’d added a new baby to the family. When Ben was just 5 weeks old, we headed East to St. Paul, MN.

Mike’s seminary time started with two years of classes.  Like most of the seminary students, funds were really tight. Also, our family had a lot of illnesses and 3 out of 4 of us were hospitalized with various ailments...within a three month period of time.  The Struck family name became well-known at chapel as they were frequently praying for us. We eperienced such sweetness during those months, though. We made new friends as people dropped by to bring us food. One woman cleaned our apartment while we were at the hospital with a sick child. Someone even did our laundry!  It was hard but we sure saw  a lot of kindness during that time.

The third year of seminary is set aside for internship so the whole family has to move again.  Mike was assigned to Gillette, WY, where my Mom lived.  It was a fun year at a very lively church. Mike's internship pastor was Russ Hillman.  During that year we housesat for an older couple and Mike made about 60 cents an hour but it was a wonderful year.  At his good-bye party one of the guys  dressed up as “Mike” for a skit.

 Note his Cardinal’s shirt, Bible, golf clubs, chess board…all favorite things of Mike’s. He also made a point to wear jeans and cowboy boots…Mike’s favorite attire.

We went back to seminary for Mike’s final year of classes.  One evening, in early Spring, Mike received an unexpected phone call. The person on the line told him he was calling from Harlowton, MT. They were looking for a pastor and it turns out, he was put on speaker phone for the whole call committee to speak with him RIGHT THEN. When the conversation was ending Mike was still a bit confused about what was going on. He asked if they wanted him to come for an interview. That’s when he found out that the phone call WAS his interview!

As it turned out, Mike did accept that call. We did NOT go out to see it first, he just accepted the call. Maybe it was his strong faith that made him do such a thing without even going for a visit. OR maybe it was his competitive spirit. You see, he then became the first of his class to have a call!

This slide is a photo of us enjoying a dinner for the graduating seminarians.  It was hard to believe that he was almost done with all those years of college and seminary!

Graduation day was a happy day for us as a couple. It had not been an easy road when we left the farm, but it had been an adventure.
As this next slide shows, Mike’s whole family had been very supportive of him.

We loaded up to move again.  We stopped in Turner, MT first where Mike was ordained on June 4, 1989.

This occurred at the same church where his parents had been married and where Mike had been baptized, confirmed, married and where our first two kids had been baptized. It was a special day.  Mike told the kids that day that they could call him "Pastor Daddy" and I could call him "Pastor Honey".... whatever!

Mike’s relatives showed up for support. These men are all related to Mike in one way or another and they were all proud of him.
Turner is a long LONG way from anywhere. Really. There is no fast food for about 75 miles! Yet, Mike had a lot of relatives who drove a long way to be there. It was nice.

This is Mike when he could finally sit and rest and visit with family after his ordination.

This photo of him in his Cardinal’s shirt has nothing to do with any of this but I knew he’d like it.

OK, It is kind of long so I'm going to break it up for you. Tune in tomorrow for more!